I've been encouraged by a few people to apply to DO schools if I don't get into MD rather than going to MD abroad. They say that DO students can write the USMLE and often end up working as MD's which I'm not arguing.
But having looked at some of the things required from a DO doctor, I'm not sure I'd be able to do them let alone get through the schooling. Plus, would there be added stress from studying for both DO and MD Complex and USMLE (I know there's a lot of overlap but there have to be some difference, I'm not sure if they start in 2nd year or when).
Also in Canada, DO doctors are quite rare and don't really practise much so if I did go to DO school then it would have to be with the goal of becoming an MD.
Wow, your post is filled with such a lack of information/misunderstanding, I don't even know where to start. First I would recommend just reading a tiny bit about DOs before posting on here asking about the curriculum. Its clear you know very little about the profession to begin with.
First, DOs do NOT become MDs. They are two different degrees (granted in the US and many other countries they confer no real difference in terms of profession, but they are different degrees). You cannot exchange one for the other.
Second, some provinces of Canada give DOs full practice rights as physicians (i.e. they are in the eyes of the law and medical licensing identical degrees). However, some provinces do not recognize the degree (This may no longer be true, its possible that new canadian regulations have given DOs full practice rights in all regions recently). I would look here for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Osteopathic_Medicine#International_variations
DOs have full access to the USMLE. They are physicians. They can enter into ACGME residencies as well as AOA and combined ACGME/AOA residencies. They aren't "working as MDs", both MDs and DOs are working as physicians.
The name of the DO equivalent of the USMLE is the COMLEX, which you must take if you go to a DO school. Both are typical taken at the end of the 2nd year, before clinical rotations.
The curriculum of DO schools is essentially indistinguishable from that of MD schools, with the exception that DO schools have a minimum of 200 course hours in OMM (osteopathic manipulative medicine) or OMT (treatment). Now of course, that means slightly less hours of basic science, but since no school is identical there are many MD schools that say have similarly less hours of basic science replaced with work in a clinic, etc.
As a Canadian though, if you go to a DO school, you will have to match in the US and will only really be able to return to Canada after residency, and even then you'd have to go to the specific provinces that grant the DO degree full practice rights.
